Creative Blaster GeForce5 FX 5200

Graphics cards based on nVidia's GeForce MX products have been a huge success but with the latest games starting to struggle on the baby of the nVidia range, it's time for a replacement.

The latest budget cards are based on the GeForce FX 5200 chip, which nVidia is very keen to tell people is the cheapest to fully support DirectX 9. Creative's version is the Blaster GeForce5 FX 5200.

At £79 it looks like good value for a graphics card upgrade but to be honest, we were a little disappointed with the performance. It out-performs the outgoing GeForce 4 MX cards and narrowly defeats cards based on the GeForce 4 Ti 4200, which can be bought much more cheaply. Although the older cards don't support DirectX 9, the Creative lacks the horsepower to properly take advantage of the new features.

In its favour, the Creative doesn't have a fan fitted so it is suitable for people building a quiet computer. If your existing graphics card is very old or you're not a very demanding gamer this is worth a look but it's nothing to get excited about.

Contact: Creative
www.creative.com